Zero hour
by Touhoufanatic
Summary: An average day for the Kyoto academies student council is shattered. how will lelouch, suzaku, kallen and lady kaguya react to brittannia declaring war upon their home of japan? alternate universe. rated M
1. zero hour

0700 hours

Suzaku stood at the gates to the arch in front of the Kururugi Shrine and sighed to himself. The view of Kyoto was breathtaking as always and it was easy to tell that Japan was doing well both socially and economically. As he looked out at the city and the ocean beyond though he could not help but feel like there was something coming. Something terrible

He sighed once again, worrying wasn't going to help him and if he did not leave soon he was going to be even later than he already was.

0815 hours

Even though he was late leaving the Shrine he still was at the school early, not as early as usual but still early enough to be a good example as a student council member. Walking through Kyoto Academy's gates and to the student council room Suzaku ended up saying good morning to almost thirty different students, which was unusual for a Monday but at least it was a good sign. As he walked into the student council room he was greeted with a book of all things, to the face, at high speed.

"Dammit Lelouch why do you keep running of when we need you most!...oh Suzaku….. ah Suzaku I'm sorry!" yelled Lady Kaguya who ran over and knelt beside Suzaku to make sure he was okay. Lady Kaguya was well developed considering she was a year younger than him, her long black hair flowed freely and her red and white academy uniform showed off her well curved body as she made sure he was okay.

"That's okay Kaguya" Suzaku said as he sat up and picked up the book that was thrown. A Sengoku Basara manga, figures. He stood up with a little assistance from Kaguya who was still apologizing and quickly interrupted. "Why did you throw a manga at me anyway?

Kaguya instantly went quiet and turned away so as to not show her obviously blushing face.

"Because she thought you were her dear Lelouch obviously Suzaku" stated Kallen Kozuki who was sitting at the student council table. She turned to him and Kaguya who were still standing in front of the door" you guys going to sit down or will I have to do all the work myself?"

Suzaku and Kaguya looked at each other and went to their respective seats at the table. Kaguya sat at the end of the table and quickly turned on the tables built in computer and brought up a screen to attempt to hide what was left of her blushing. "Where is Lelouch anyway Suzaku?"

Suzaku looked at Kaguya with a confused look. "Did he not enter the school already?"

Kallen shook her head as she pulled up a window and looked through the schools daily attendance. "Neither the front gate or the school doors scanned his card yet, unless he went over the wall and in through a window, he's not on school grounds. Wait check that he just entered the grounds"

"Well it's about time" pouted Kaguya as she crossed her arms across her chest as if to hide her breasts or her form in general. Suzaku thought it kind of funny; Kaguya was both the student council president and the High Lady of Japans government, arguably the most powerful woman in Japan. But regardless of this fact she did not let that power go too her head. She also had a habit of sometimes hiding her femininity from others, except Lelouch.

As Suzaku heard the door opening he saw Kaguya stand up from her chair looking as if she was going to pounce across the table.

"Good morni-"

"Lelouch!" interrupted Kaguya with a scream.

Lelouch flinched slightly as he looked to Kaguya who was now leaning over the table tapping her fingers to it rapidly. "Yes?"

"Why are you late?!"

"Traffic?"

Suzaku put his hand to his forehead "you left the shrine before I did Lelouch, and you have a motorcycle"

Lelouch could only give Suzaku a dirty look before Kaguya came around the table and stood before him in anger. "I bet you went off gambling again didn't you Lelouch"

"Why would you think that, I just had some business to attend to"

"So says the wad of bills coming out of your pocket right" commented Kallen with a snicker as she pointed to his right pocket which did indeed have a wad of crisp large bills falling out of it.

Kaguya looked to his pocket and then looked back up at Lelouch and glared at him with slight tears of rage in her eyes.

Crap, class could not come soon enough.

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0857 hours

As the four of them entered the classroom they were greeted with the usual greetings from their classmates and the usual comment from the teacher.

"I appreciate you actually coming to class but please try to get to class on time please, regardless of student council activity" the teacher stated as he tapped his pencil on the desk."

"We'll try sensei" replied Kallen as she glared at Lelouch, which the teacher noticed

"And Ryuukei Kun?"

"Yes?" replied Lelouch

"If the student council is going to be regularly late because of your extracurricular income activities I'd suggest dropping them or at the very least doing them closer to the school."

Ugh. "Yes morichika sensei." Lelouch replied as the entire class snickered slightly.

"Good, now if everyone would turn to page 361 we can begin"

As Lelouch opened his textbook he could only groan as he saw what the chapter was titled.

Japanese history of government and social standings.

Lunchtime was going to be a long way away.

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1224 hours

"Oh yeah I forgot to ask Kaguya, how are the negotiations with India going?" asked Kallen as the four of them sat in the student council room while eating lunch.

"Hm? Oh that. There going okay, Rakshata already working with us and the Chinese Federation is helping but it's going slower than expected"

"It makes sense in a way though" stated Lelouch without skipping a beat.

Kallen and Kaguya looked at him as if he just smacked someone. "How do you figure?"

"With Britannia having upped their campaign against the EU remnants and the African Alliances they're nervous about making alliances. They don't want to become a target"

Kallen and Kaguya sat there stunned. Not only had he just recapped the last month of Britannian military campaigns he gave a very good reason why the negotiations were going so slowly. "I'll have to take that into account when negotiations resume on Friday then" Kaguya stated as Suzaku cleared his throat or a question.

"One other question Kaguya"

"Okay Suzaku what is it?"

"How is the counter Knight project going?"

Kaguya went quiet and her look soured at his question. "You know I can't speak of that in public Suzaku, that's top secret!"

"True but we all know of it, hell me and Kallen are supposed to be test pilots for it but every time we try to call for an update we get stonewalled by Rakshata's assistant. We barely know anything besides it's supposed to be a knightmare counter. And were not in public now"

"Suzaku, did you ever think that the reason you're getting is stonewalled is because they want as few details released as possible so that the Britannians are not expecting it?" Lelouch injected casually as he drank his can of coffee.

Kaguya looked to Lelouch and then proceeded to get up from her chair and glomp him from behind. "Ya Lelouch gets it, I'm so happy someone understands"

"Gha, Kaguya get off I can't eat if you're latched onto my back, especially if-"

"If what?" Kaguya asked as she pressed her breasts up against his back and pressed her cheek to his."

"Nothing" Lelouch said as he attempted to regain his composure as Kaguya let go and sat back down at her seat beside his.

"I'm guessing Lelouch was falling for your feminine whiles Kaguya" laughed Suzaku as a knock came on the student council room's door witch interrupted Kaguya's obvious blushing at Suzaku's statement.

Before Kaguya could even say come in the door was flung open and in came a student. She had long blonde hair done into two large curls on the sides. She was panting so heavily it looked like she had just run a marathon "prez….outside…." she wheezed as Kallen and Suzaku ran over and helped her up. Within moments she was sitting done and drinking some water, or attempting too as she seemed to spill most of it on her large chest.

"Okay, now what's wrong Tomoe san?" asked Kallen to Tomoe whose breathing had returned to a semi normal pace.

"There's something in the harbour, you all need to see immediately!"

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1311 hours, zero hour

The four of them came out to the schools courtyard to find it full of student's which they then had to split apart to get through to see. As they got to the front of the crowd at the top of a hill in the courtyard they saw the scene the rest of the students were worried about.

The city of Kyoto was abuzz with the sounds of sirens and there just outside the harbor just outside of view was a long black object.

"Suzaku, pass me those binoculars of yours" Lelouch asked Suzaku who quickly did so.

Looking through them he could see what it was. A battleship outfitted with six large guns, and the Britannian flag upon its side. As he lowered the binoculars a chain of large bangs was heard and then small explosions rang out from the harbours edge in quick succession.

"Get everyone to the gymnasium." He stated coldly causing everyone within earshot to go deathly silent.

The Britannians had just attacked japan.

War had come to japan.

**Authors notes:**

**if somehow you do not realize this lelouch has taken the last name of ryuukei witch means exile.**


	2. the shore gun

1330 hours, zero hour

Suzaku figured things were going pretty good. With Lelouch, Kallen and himself gathering all the schools students in the gymnasium he was sure the tallies would be done shortly. He rubbed his wrist to his head and looked at it. He was sweating; which was not surprising considering the predicament they were in.

Britannia had declared war against Japan by sending in a battleship and bombarding Kyoto, and it was likely they were attacking other places as well.

Looking over, he could see Lelouch talking with all of the class representatives and gathering the student rosters from them. Before he could say anything, Kaguya ran over to where the three of them were standing on the gymnasium stage.

"We have a problem," Kaguya said in a very serious tone as the last of the student class reps left to calm down their classes.

"How so?" asked Kallen who was tallying all of the rosters Lelouch had given her on a holo screen projected from her phone.

"I'll tell you in a moment," Kaguya said as she walked to the front of the stage and raised her hand, calming the entire gymnasium in a matter of seconds. "My fellow students. I realize this may be a shock but I must tell you exactly what is happening. Less than half an hour ago Britannia launched simultaneous attacks upon our fair country of Japan. We are at war!"

Hearing this, the entire student body began yelling as people began panicking. Luckily, Kaguya knew how to deal with it.

"There is no need to be alarmed. Currently our great military is fighting the Britannians back to the sea. However the student council must go as we have our duties to carry out. I would ask that all of you stay in the gymnasium until help from the military arrives. Until then all class reps are to keep order while the student council carries out their duties. Thank you." Kaguya finished as he walked away from the front of the stage to Lelouch, Suzaku and Kallen.

"So what's the plan, Kaguya?" Lelouch asked as he stood in his usual casual demeanour.

"Simple. I have to go to the student council room to connect to the CIC and rally the troops and the like, but I need you three to do something."

All three nodded quickly.

"Todo told me on the phone that for some reason the shore gun above the Kyoto harbour is not firing, it needs to!"

"All right, but just me and Kallen could do it," commented Suzaku as Kaguya had paused.

"No you can't, Lelouch is the only one of you three that knows the reset code so he has to go with you. Beside if he goes with you then you two will be less likely to do something drastic and get yourselves killed."

Suzaku growled slightly at this as Lelouch and Kallen accepted the mission.

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1343 hours

Minutes later the three of them were taking Lelouch's bike along the now empty highway that went along the outskirts of the city. From here they could take in all of the information of just how the city was fairing. The city itself seemed to be rather untouched but the harbour was faring badly. Massive plumes of smoke billowed from what was left of warehouses and the sounds of Knightmare combat could be heard all the way from where they were. It made Suzaku very upset that he and Kallen could not deploy in the Zougeiro and Gurren. Both were being used by Rakshata to create the new Knightmare frame counter project, leaving them unable to deploy.

By the time they got to the shore gun's gate and hid Lelouch's bike it would only be a matter of getting inside. Both Suzaku and Kallen had donned some ballistic armour and had small machine guns on them, though they hoped they would not have to use them.

Sneaking down the road, they found their first problem. Before them standing on either side of the door to the shore gun bunker where two Britannian soldiers decked out in heavy ballistic armour and holding two large automatic shotguns. Making things even more difficult, the one seemed to be on a radio talking with a superior while the other was scanning the surrounding woods with skill. These were no recruits.

Suzaku looked to Lelouch who was deep in thought. "Any ideas, Lelouch?"

Lelouch quickly nodded and motioned for Suzaku and Kallen to come closer. "Those automatic shotguns are the main problem, only way to stay out of their line of sight is to hit them from behind. The two of you circle around them. I'll grab their attention, when it's diverted you hit them from behind as quietly as possible."

"Are you sure about this Lelouch, you'll be right in their sights if they decide to attack you."

"I know but it's our best chance. Sending a large force to take out the gun would be noticed so I'm guessing there will only be about a half dozen soldiers in total, let's do this."

As Suzaku and Kallen ran to his left and right he could not but feel a little leery at his own idea, after all if it did not work he would be dead. Luckily he knew a plan that should work. He quickly composed himself and slowly but casually walked out of the forest toward the soldiers.

"_yo, about time you got here_." Lelouch said in perfectly fluent English.

"_Who are you? State your name and business._" Questioned the soldier on the right as he quickly threw his radio into his pocket.

"_Hey look at his uniform. It's a Japanese student_" the other noticed and stated loudly enough for Lelouch to hear.

"_Of course not, this is just a disguise. My name is Ralph Burnsworth, Infiltration Operative, Second Class. I assume you have been waiting for me_?" Lelouch asked them casually as he stood before them.

The two soldiers looked at each other "_We were not told of meeting an infiltrator. What was your mission?"_

Perfect. _"I was to escape during the chaos and meet soldiers at the shore gun to deactivate it with the knowledge acquired of it."_

The soldiers pointed their guns at him in a blur of motion _"Lies! We're not here to deactivate the gun. It just became a happy second objective that we were able to deal with. Time to die, school boy!"_

Crack.

Right before they could fire Suzaku and Kallen came out of the bush and smashed the butts of their guns onto the soldier's uncovered heads dropping them to the ground in an instant. Lelouch quickly walked over and picked up one of the soldiers pistols and followed Suzaku and Kallen who were now heading into the bunker.

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1359 hours

Oddly enough, the entire bunker was quiet and it seemed as if it had not been manned. The three of them made it all the way to the command room without meeting a single Britannian or Japanese soldier. Lelouch quickly got on to the command screen and realized the problem.

"Cover me; I have to recalibrate the controls."

Suzaku and Kallen quickly scanned the room and prepared for the worst. They were in a room with two entry points; the open hallway to their right they had just come in and, to their left, a large metal door that ran down into the depths of the bunker and the guns actual housing. Within moments they could hear the gun's mechanisms grinding together and preparing to fire.

Crash

Kallen turned to the metal door and saw a person burst though. Without thinking, she pulled the trigger filling the person with holes. The body flew in the air, sliding past them and landing in front of Lelouch who had just turned away from the control panel after successfully recalibrating it. As he bent down to look at the person, four Britannian soldiers leapt out of the door the girl had just come out of, surrounding the three of them before Kallen or Suzaku could react.

A Britannian officer walked in behind the four soldiers and began speaking. _"I have to say, I did not expect to find Japanese soldiers here so quickly after we deactivated the gun. Oh, and you killed the girl we had to capture. Fantastic, well I suppose I can bring her corpse back to the science division, once we kill you, that is."_

Lelouch slowly looked up from the girl as the soldier's raised their guns. The woman had long green hair and was wearing what looked to be some kind of strait jacket. She had no pulse.

"This can't be happening! I can't die. Suzaku and Kallen can't die. We have too much to live for, to die here, just as we have a chance to deny the Britannians! "Lelouch thought as the dead girl's arm shot up and grabbed his head.

"You have much to live for. "

"What! Impossible, she was shot!" Lelouch thought as images and the girl's voice flooded his mind.

"But you will die momentarily. So I have a proposition. I can give you the power you require. The power to protect those you care about, the power to get your revenge. In return, you must make my one wish come true."

"A way out of this situation? A way to protect those I care about?"

"Do you accept the contract and the terms therein?"

"Yes, I accept the terms of your contract!" answered Lelouch as the shore gun finally fired sending a shockwave throughout the entire building that rattled the entire bunker.


	3. R&D

Day 2 1123 hours.

Kaguya scowled as she stormed down the sleek white metallic hallways of the Mount Fuji R&D Military base. The base had been built on Genbu Kururugi and her mother's orders five years before and housed Japan's most secretive and dangerous research and development projects. Being the current head of Japan she had absolutely no qualms about using it, especially now that Britannia had declared war on them officially just three hours before.

She walked into the base's infirmity, into the door first before remembering it opens slowly, and stepped inside to see both Kallen and Suzaku sitting at a table playing cards. As soon as they saw her they both seemed to freeze up slightly as they looked to each other and them back to her.

"Um, we can explain," stated Suzaku worryingly as Kaguya stepped past the doorway allowing the door to close behind her.

"Then explain. I want to know exactly what happened and exactly how you let Lelouch get hurt!" Kaguya screamed causing small tears to appear in her eyes.

"So look at the report, Kaguya," Lelouch said as he and Rakshata came out from behind a curtain with a small bandage on his head.

"Lelouch, should you be up?" Suzaku asked calmly to him and Rakshata simultaneously.

"I'm fine, just a bump."

"Don't listen to this clown. He has a minor concussion, so no strenuous activity for the next few days." Rakshata berated as she lightly tapped his head and looked to Kaguya. "I have a major update for the counter knight project for you when you'd like to hear it, Kaguya."

This got the attention of all of them and silence rained before Kaguya spoke up. "Show us all then. It's about time Kallen, Suzaku and Lelouch see what you have been working on.

"Very well then, follow me." Rakshata said as she left the room with all four of them in tow.

In a matter of minutes they had entered the main Knightmare bay and were walking on the highest catwalk which overlooked the massive bay. Stopping in the middle of the catwalk , Rakshata took a deep breath and pointed down into the bay. "I know you three haven't been here in a while but I'm sure you have noticed the most major change, yes?"

"Yeah, looks like the KMF bay has been enlarged." commented Suzaku as he looked down at the massive number of Knightmare's.

"Yes it has. The last time you were here the KMF bay could hold a total of only fifty Knightmare's and could only repair two at a time. Now it holds two hundred and can repair or build up to twenty at a time."

Hearing this, both Kallen and Suzaku seemed shocked and could only look down in amazement at how big the bay had really become.

"Either way, let us continue while I explain the reasoning behind the project." Rakshata stated as she began walking ahead, causing them to need to catch up as she began her little rant. "Simply put, the project is just as it sounds, a project to create a suitable counter to the Knightmare frames. The Knightmare frames are why the Britannians have been so powerful and while many nations including India and Japan have been able to design our own ,like the Gurren and Zougeiro, they still have the advantage of being the initial designers and having unparalleled production capability. Because of this, no matter what we can come up with they can stop it or deal with it, even if it deals considerable damage to their forces."

"Yeah, like how I began having trouble dealing with them in the Gurren. Bloody shotgun troops!" Kallen commented with a scowl.

"Indeed. To deal with this on Kaguya's request I began fiddling with many ideas on how to counter the Knightmare's. I had many ideas but the one that we settled on is the current project."

"Which is?" asked Suzaku.

"Tell me. Why are the Knightmare so effective, Major Kururugi?"

Suzaku paused for a moment before answering, as if gathering his thoughts. "They are bigger and faster than normal tanks and can be outfitted with different weapon systems."

"Exactly. To counter this we thought up many plans but they all failed. Except one." Rakshata stated as the finally got to the end of the catwalk. "Let's show you that we have got!

Rakshata opened the door and the all walked out onto another catwalk and were….confused at what they saw. Most of them expected some kind of special Knightmare or maybe some kind of tank, but neither were anywhere. All over the massive lab sat files of what looked to be armour and weapons systems, too small to be for Knightmare's, but too big to be for human usage. All around were screens where the blueprints for what looked to be the machines, but seemed oddly human in their appearance. Below them, they saw a scientist inside a series of bars and sensors beside which stood slightly larger than human sized armour. As he moved his arm the armour's arm did as well, and as he turned his body and moved around the armour followed flawlessly. They all walked down a small flight of stairs and over to a computer. Rakshata flicked on the monitor showing a full color design of the project. It looked like some kind of full body armour and did not look like a danger to Knightmares on first glance.

"This is what we have created. We call them the Oni Armour."

"But what is it?" asked Kallen as she gazed at the diagram confusingly.

"It is the counter to the Knightmares. Allow me to explain in detail, especially for you, Lelouch." Rakshata commented as she glanced at Lelouch who was studying it intently.

"Thank you, please do." Lelouch replied only turning his head away from it when Kaguya forcibly pulled his head away.

"Then I shall. The Oni Armour is an exoskeletal suit, standing from seven to eight feet depending on the wearer. It has heavy composite plate armour on the legs and arms & moderate armour over the rest of the body. It also has a built in shielding system to protect the wearer from direct hits. This however uses more power than dodging so it is better to dodge incoming fire."

"Dodging?" asked Kallen

"Give me a moment and I'll get to that. The Oni was built with three precepts in mind; maneuverability, survivability and damage output. For maneuverability we decide on an interesting concept, semi-sustained flight. The Oni armour's legs are fully functional, able to walk normally and run up to 20 kilometers per hour. The real strength however, is the leg system boosters. Built into the legs are a total of five boosters, two on the upper leg, two on the lower, and one on the bottom of the foot. When activated, these boosters provide low level flight to the wearer, with a top speed of up to around 150 kilometers per hour, easily three times that of a normal Knightmare."

Kallen and Suzaku stared in disbelief at the design screen." How can this little thing get that fast?" Kallen asked.

"That is actually related to its survivability and its core design. We knew that we would need to have shielding and for it to have a high top speed for it to survive sustained combat. Because of this, we completely redesigned the reactor around a new technology I have recently mastered."

"It isn't that Britannian one, what was it called, unclear?" asked Suzaku.

"You're thinking of nuclear, and no. We're not using some kind of rare metal for this but still using Sakuradite. Using it in our new reactor that we have dubbed the Elysium plasma reactor, it can generate almost ten times the power of a conventional Sakuradite energy filler reactor used in normal Knightmare. This powers not just its systems and weapons but shields as well."

"You keep mentioning shielding, what do you mean by that? Are you talking about a physical shield or those advanced Britannian defence shields we've seen popping up occasionally?" asked Lelouch in his usual calm and slightly refined tone.

"In a way I suppose it is similar to theirs, but this is better. It has been named diamond skin. It creates two layers of what I've called hexagonal hard shields to protect the wearer. The shield hovers about ten centimetres away from the armour and moves with it, making it an invaluable asset to survivability because as long as the machine has power the shielding will work. There is, of course, the possibility of some attacks getting through if they are powerful enough. That is why speed is necessary to the user's survival."

"It would seem speed is important, but how are they going to be dangerous to a Knightmare frame when only a third of their size?" asked Lelouch as Rakshata paused to catch her breath.

Rakshata looked at him and smirked, bringing up a new screen comprised of a list set into sections. "Of course, I would leave the best for last. As you know we took apart the Gurren and Zougeiro to give us parts, mainly for the weapon systems actually. Our first two prototypes have been made specifically for you two and are nearing completion. You can see them then, but I guarantee they will be effective against Knightmare's."

"All right, thank you for the update. How long till they can be tested by Kallen and Suzaku?" Kaguya asked, adopting her more normal and professional high lady tone.

"….I figure the first two prototypes will be done within the next two days."

"Good, thank you. Shall we get out of your hair then?"

"Yes, off you go," declared Rakshata as she showed the four of them out of the lab, and out of the R&D base.

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Day 2 1941 Hours

Suzaku and Lelouch stood at the top and looked onto the Kururugi shrine grounds. The temple itself was fine as it always was. The grounds were covered in leaves and branches.

"I thought we swept not two days ago? Lelouch asked, though he knew the answer.

"It's only going to get worse as summer comes to a close." Suzaku said with a sigh

"I'll start sweeping then."

"All right, just let me change into my robes and I'll be out to help." Suzaku stated as he ran into the shrine leaving Lelouch alone with his thoughts of the previous day.

What had happened after he heard that woman's voice? And what was the weird feeling he was having.


End file.
